Satisfaction
by SeeLe
Summary: Years after the plot of PS4, Rika and Chaz are happily married with a child of their own. But is there something missing in Rika's life?


Satisfaction

An fan-fic based on the RPG Phantasy Star 4. Written by SeeLe (minciong1@home.com) 

"Thanks, Momma!" cheered Alice. The little numan child grinned happily and gave her mother a gracious peck on the cheek. With a flourish of her golden hair, Alice skipped off to school. The mother, Rika, beamed at her daughter's receding form. _She has so much of Chaz in her._

A warm embrace hovered around her shoulder, and Rika didn't jump. She knew it was her human husband, Chaz. He was tall with the classic blonde hair and blue eyes. With his muscular body and tender touch, Rika had easily consented to their first intimate night together and eventually to their marriage. The idea of making love to Chaz has enchanted her sapphire eyes; it still does. 

Marrying him was an adventure all its own.

"I gotta go to work, hon," Chaz said casually. His voice had matured over the years she had known him. The first day they met deep in the Valley of Life, his voice cracked every once in a while. Now, he had a full bass voice, rumbling but sexy.

"Yes, I know."

Chaz gave her a kiss full on the lips- the kind he always used when little Alice wasn't around. The wife moaned.

"You're gonna make me make you late," she sighed at him.

"I know." Chaz winked and placed a finger against her soft lips. "Hold that thought."

Rika smiled dreamily at him. The itchy fuzz of a tiny beard speckled his cheeks and chin-- _How manly!. _Her eyes followed him as he picked up—and her dream snapped out—his sweep. He hefted the sweep upward, letting the pole of it rest on his broad shoulders. The sooty tuft at the end puffed. Chaz looked like he held a black umbrella.

"Good-bye, honey."

"Good-bye."

__

Good-bye.

Rika closed the front door and locked it with a soft click. She leaned against the door, tapping her heel against the wooden floor. Her proud pink hair was braided and lay against her left breast. Instead of the black armor many have grown to love her in, she wore a light blue dress with a white apron on top. Instead of the fierce lioness that fought against three Darkforces, Rika became the house cat.

With the dainty steps of a housewife, Rika walked to the den and sat on the couch. She smiled weakly, trying to find some happiness in this quaint little house. 

__

There's much to be happy about! She thought. _I have a loving, dear husband, and a lively child! I fought against the most evil of Evils and saved the galaxy from it! How can..?_

She stopped thinking because it has brought her gloom lately. How can she not be happy? With all his glory and his triumph, all that Chaz could do is sweep chimneys? With all her training with Seed, could she not train her daughter into a ferocious killing machine with the brains of the Legendary Mother Brain? With all her power and skill, could Rika not be more than a simple housewife?

__

I remember those days…5 years ago. Alys' death. The Psycho Wand, and it's magical capabilities? Zooming through space, chasing after an Evil that could conquer the galaxy and then the universe.

There's been so much peace these years past.

Rika inspected her fingernails. They shown prettily in the filtered sunlight. No blood had gushed underneath them in years. No prying doors open had broken them either. Not in a long time. Rika remembered the searing pain of touching metal after Rune had cast "Flaeli" on it.

The exhilaration of escaping the Valley of Life, Seed's laboratory, to find a blue sky above her and a green earth below. Killing monsters at the time seemed like a daily thing for her.

Now, the only killing she has done is killing germs when Alice or Chaz developed a cold.

Furrowing her brow, Rika focused her power onto her right hand. She stared at the light blue glow her hand emitted. Sweat dotted her forehead, and she snapped her hand at the couch in disgust. Is this the extent of her healing powers now? Has she lost the wonders of the "Res", "Gires", and "Nares"? She sighed.

"Am I becoming useless?" she wondered aloud.

Gasping, Rika clasped her hand against her mouth as if she had uttered incredible blasphemy. The unspeakable has been spoken. Is she really becoming useless?

"All I've been trained to do is kill and heal. I can do neither now. All I really do now is clean." She groaned loudly. "How can anyone live like this? Without adventure? The satisfaction of the hunt? Having the wind burn in your lungs? Is it possible?"

As if to test her questions, Rika ran to the kitchen. As if to answer her question, Rika slipped awkwardly and fell on her face. She panicked. _Has my skill disappeared totally?!_ _My prowess?_

Rika crawled to a stand, walked to the kitchen counter, and cried until she couldn't cry anymore.

"Momma!" Alice called. "Momma, I'm home!" The door slammed at a choreographed timing. The little half-numan girl pranced into the living room, dumped her book bag and jumped up the stairs, two by two. Startled at the slam but not by Alice's daily entrance, Rika quickly dried her flooding tears and awaited Alice to talk of her day. In a few more hours, Chaz would be home, sooty from a day's work as a chimney sweep.

__

This was a typical day of Rika's uneventful life.

There. On top of the municipal building. Her pink hair flowed lively in the air. That black armor reflected dark light off its shiny surface. Rika, former Warrior for Motavia, stood on top of the municipal building. With one foot on a stump of a chimney, Rika gazed down the thirteen-story drop. The clearing below her gathered no people. 

_Those people were raised with normal lives._

She frowned. Fingering the Ring of Motavia, Rika reminisced about her adventures with Chaz, Rune, Hahn, Wren, Kyra, Griz, Alys, and that fool of a priest. In a way, she has conquered all the adventures Life could offer. What was left was just stagnant waters that stopped the boat that had sped through the dangers of tsunamis. 

Her eyes seemed to have misted over, and quietly, Rika left the building's roof.

The hydrofoil hummed quietly at Zema's city limits. No one seemed to notice the monstrous machine because Zema had become a ghost town. The City of the Valley of Life was no longer revered for that Valley. Humans tend to forget the magic of legends.

Rika walked straight down the main street and saw where the source of her troubles had started. The tumbled rocks covered it, but it was still there. With the destruction of Seed, Rika had entered human civilization as one of its saviors. 

"SEED!" she cried. "Why did you do this to me? Why did you send me out here?!"

"Because Seed wanted you to spread—pardon the pun—his seed of knowledge."

Rika whirled around to find Rune standing behind her. To her surprise, Rune was dressed like the day they last saw him: white, glistening robe, and forest green suit. Grim and sad eyes permeated her very being. Her numan ears drooped in regret as she bowed to the latest Lutz. Rune did nothing but spoke to her again.

"Seed wanted you to experience the happiness that he could never teach you."

"I would've been better off in the middle of his death."

"Surely, you don't mean that." Rune's mouth was open with surprise.

"I do, I do. You have no idea how it feels to go through my life, the way it was raised and the way it is now living."

"Rika," Rune started, but he soon trailed off, not knowing what to say. The Numan was high-strung. On the last limb. Her nerves were long gone, burnt off from the frets of everyday life. Then it hit him like the Landale landing on him. The Numan was not meant for _human_ life. She was made to kill and be killed. After all, she was part monster.

"Oh, Rune! I wish I have never set foot off of Seed's stronghold!" Rika cried. This was her wish, and it couldn't be granted. She knew it; Rune knew it. The Spirit had ordained Rika to be one of the Saviors of Algo, and there was no turning back.

She cried pitifully in front of Rune, and he neither condoned it nor disapproved of it. The esper didn't know what to do. 

The air felt different when she dried her vain tears. It was not cold nor hot. Lights shimmered and reflected perpetually between the sky and crystalline ground. This…

"RYKROS!" Rika gasped, jumping to her feet. She stood on the very spot where the Voice had told her and the others of their destiny.

_Rika, you are distraught?_

"Yes, Rykros! Yes!"

_Do you regret your destiny?_

"Of all things, yes!"

_Do you wish to undo all that you and Chaz have wrought: peace and stability and safety, to ease the pain in your blood?_

Rika hesitated. Would the end of her existence change the line of Time and Destiny? Yes, it would, but, at least, Chaz wouldn't be dumbed down to a lowly chimney sweep. Alys wouldn't have died. Grys surely would have taken her place as Guardian of Motavia and Bearer of the Ring. Alice wouldn't have been born, and she surely wouldn't have to live this mundane life. 

Lastly, Rika would still be the Warrior she was engineered to be. To the end.

"Yes, Rykros."

There was a long pause. It was as if Rykros, the Enchanted, Objective Planet, was sighing, finding a way to persuade Rika to the other, non-suicidal side.

_As you see fit, Rika of Motavia. There are others._

"What's wrong, Rika?" Alys reached a trained hand over to the new companion, the Numan, Rika. The Hunter Alys smiled kindly and beckoned her again. "It's beautiful out, and there is nothing for you to be afraid of."

Rika couldn't move. The light out of the stronghold was so BRIGHT! It burned her crystalline eyes, and the blue open space frightened her. The rock was firm under her—safe—but the sky, the wind, the breeze, the SUN was heavy, threatening to fall on her. How could something so big fly so freely over her? Surely it would fall and crush her!

Rika shrank inside the lip of the cave, unable to move. Grys, Alys, Chaz and Hahn looked upon her with confusion. Just a few minutes ago, Rika was ecstatic to leave Seed's stronghold.

The first of a series of explosions startled her and the group. The second got Alys to beckon Rika with more urgency. A third time. Rocks and pebbles fell and danced upon Rika's shining pink hair, and the deep rumble from the echoing maze of a cave frightened Rika to run into Chaz's arms.

But the open sky scared her even more, and she stayed within the cave.

"RIKA! GET OUT OF THERE!" Alys cried with the authority she was known for. Still, Rika wouldn't dare move.

No! The sky! It's too BIG!

The rock crumbled over her, covering the cave's mouth and burying her with the weight of Mother Earth on top. It was dark and oppressing. Her black armor had kept her body from being crushed, but her unprotected head had been smashed in and dug into the group by a particularly larger rock. It had been painless to Rika.

"RIKA! Are you all right?! Rikaaa!!"


End file.
